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News & Trends

This department of Rental Housing Journal is dedicating to keeping apartment owners, multifamily executives, real estate investors, landlords and other real estate professionals up to date with the latest trends in real estate, property management and more. Here you will find trends in rents, real estate sales, apartment development, the economy at large and property management and investing industry matters.

FORWARD TO THE PAST Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry is a gem. And it would be worthwhile for everyone interested in our region’s apartment market to spend an afternoon there. Why? History has a way of repeating itself, at least in our region's apartment market.

The 2014 Legislative session was wild and crazy as sessions always are, but we came out very well. This doesn't happen by itself. There were hundreds of hours put in by our members, committees, lobbyists and staff. Thanks to all who work so hard to protect us.

The biggest issues:

Radon regulation - We were able to help defeat efforts to require mandatory and overzealous radon inspections whenever tenants move in or out. This costs between $250 and $300 every time a tenant moved in or out and requires you to sit empty a couple of weeks waiting for test results. Unfortunately there will always be people, including the testing industry, who want to impose these requirements on us. We are going to remain vigilant in helping the legislature understand the burden that mandatory testing would be for rental operations.

Apartment investment trends are cyclical. But unlike Seattle’s big wheel, and whether this is good or bad is a matter of opinion, most of us will go through more than 3 cycles in our career. In fact, sales trends in the Puget Sound region apartment market remind me of the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. Actually, Goldilocks and the three bowls of porridge.

THE MORE THE MERRIER Here is some good news about migration into the Puget Sound region. Our region continues to capture more than 60% of the migration into the state. And year-to-date migration into the region is up 16% this year compared to last year. Here's more good news.

On January 13, 2014, the State House again took under consideration House Bill 1214. Briefly stated, HB 1214 exempts from property taxes veterans with one hundred percent service-connected disabilities and active duty members of the armed forces, National Guard, or Reserves who have incurred a catastrophic injury in the line of duty. The Bill has been around awhile. It was first introduced a year ago and sent to the Finance Committee, reintroduced in May of 2013, reintroduced in November of 2013, and reintroduced in January.

APARTMENTS GO TO THE OSCARS This year's Oscars is a particularly unusual and exciting event. For the first time ever, four of the movies nominated for best picture tell important, gripping, and sometimes disturbing stories about apartment investing in the Puget Sound region. We applaud the courage of the producers, the vision of the directors, and the insightful portrayals by the actors who captured the quintessential essence of the 21st century apartment investor and property manager like the silver screen has never before displayed. Let’s take a look at these four outstanding films.

A bill to allow landlords to opt out of working with housing authorities was dropped after the UAA and Housing Authorities agreed to implement an accountability system for housing authorities and tenants, in which both groups agreed to police their own.
The backstory
Utah is one of only 13 states that have “Source of Income” as a protected class. This means as long as a tenant meets all of your criteria except income, that you may not deny them just because they are receiving government assistance. Basically, says Paul Smith, UAA Executive Director, you have to work with the government including their paperwork, inspections and rules, whether you want to ort not.

Just as Olympic athletes are competing for gold this week, apartment investors are also seeking gold under the shadow of our Olympic mountains. Let’s look at a couple of trends to see where they might find opportunities.

It’s hard to predict the future. The best way is to look at trends, include expert analysis and predictions from independent, highly regarded sources and not ignore the lessons taught by history. With that as a background, let’s take an “educated” guess at the future of single family and small multi-family rentals for Arizona.